Admissions and Financial Aid

llm program

The application deadline is April 30, 2016. We will begin making admissions decisions in January 2016, so we strongly encourage you to submit your application well before the stated deadline. Applications received after the deadline will be considered only on a space-available basis.
Eligibility requirements

Applicants must have either (a) graduated from a U.S. law school that is approved by the American Bar Association, (b) obtained a full degree in law from a non-U.S. university or (c) be admitted to practice law in a country other than the U.S. Apart from this, we seek applicants from a variety of backgrounds and with a variety of legal and career interests. We are most interested in applicants from other countries who have completed their prior legal studies with high rank and who intend to return to their home countries to contribute to the legal profession. We also welcome applications from experienced U.S. lawyers who may uniquely benefit from advanced work here.

English Language Skills

Boston College Law School course work and related academic activities require written and spoken fluency in English. Students must be able to express themselves in both spoken and written English and must read the language with ease. Consequently, you must submit evidence of your English language ability unless either (a) English is your native language, or (b) English was the language of instruction for your entire legal education. We accept the following tests as evidence of your English ability:

• Application Form (electronic or paper; see below)
• Resume or c.v.
• Statement of Purpose
• Two signed letters of recommendation
• Official transcripts with a certified English translation from all of your colleges, universities and graduate and professional schools
• Official TOEFL or IELTS score report
• $75 Application Fee

Which application to use

The preferred way to apply to the LL.M. program is electronically through the LSAC web site. If you use the e-app, you must also use the LSAC LL.M. Credential Assembly Service, including the International Transcript Authentication and Evaluation Feature. This enables you to provide all of your application documents to the LSAC, which will in turn forward the relevant documents to each school to which you apply.

You may also submit the paper version of the application, as long as (a) you plan to submit original paper recommendations and transcripts directly to us, and(b) you are asking the appropriate testing service to send your TOEFL or IELTS score report (if required) directly to us.

Note: if you are applying electronically, you must pay the Law School's $75 application fee by credit card (Visa, Mastercard, Discover). If you are applying on paper, you may pay the application fee by a check, travelers checks, or a postal money order. If none of these forms of payment is available to you, please contact the Office of Graduate Legal Education. For further information, see the relevant application instructions.

Financial matters

The estimated cost of study for a single student during the 2014-15 academic year is $66,536. This figure consists of tuition and fees of $48,476 and estimated living expenses of $18,899. It does not include the expenses of travel between the student’s home country and the Boston area. The comparable figures for the 2015-16 academic year are likely to be higher.

Applicants requiring financial assistance should investigate funding sources in their home countries well in advance. Examples of such sources include employers, government agencies and foundations. A partial list of organizations that offer scholarship funding for U.S. graduate study follows:

The United States embassy or consulate in your home country may have additional information on Fulbright Scholarships and other fellowship opportunities. Finally, loan funding may be available from organizations such as Sallie Mae. If you are not a United States citizen or permanent resident, however, lenders generally require a United States citizen or permanent resident to guarantee the loan.

In addition, Boston College Law School has a limited amount of scholarship funding available to LL.M. students. You may submit your completed financial aid application either with your application for admission, or after you receive an offer of admission. We review your application for admission without regard to your financial situation, so submitting a scholarship application will have no effect on whether or not we offer you admission to the LL.M. program.

Further information

If you have questions about the application process, please contact the Office of Graduate Legal Education by email at bcllm@bc.edu, by telephone at (1-617) 552-1002, or at the following address: